Movies about Autism and Asperger's Syndrome

This list groups together movies about autism and Asperger syndrome, two disorders with similarities. Despite everybody remembering the resounding performance of Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man, there are lots of movies that have focused on these disorders, to a greater or lesser extent. Important examples include: Temple Grandin, My Name Is Khan and the australian stop motion animated dark comedy-drama Mary and Max.

The best autism movies, among stories of children and documentaries

Although everyone now knows that the autism spectrum disorders do not imply cognitive impairments, cinema has sometimes gone too far in the opposite direction dealing with the issue, fueling a paradoxical misconception; this has prompted a gallery of problematic figures with superhuman intelligence: the famous and already mentioned Rain Man is the most evident example, but also Little Man Tate and the recent The Accountant have contributed to create a sort of stereotype of “brilliant autistic” that does not really match with the statistics in medical literature. Temple Grandin, not by chance based on a true story, is more probable and balanced: it recreates the story of a great woman, who, in spite of her disease, has achieved important results in her profession, revolutionizing the system of treatment of animals in herds of cows. One absolutely not-to-be missed film is the documentary Life, Animated, the moving story of a child that at the age of two suddenly closes himself to the outside world. Many years later, unexpectedly, thanks to the universe and the characters of Disney cartoons, little Owen will find a sort of “code language”, that will allow his family to start communicating with him again. Another couple of honest and moving films? The delicate Adam and My Name Is Khan, existential odyssey of an Indian immigrant in the US that kind of reminds us of Forrest Gump.

The most recent films about autism: in 2016 “Life, Animated” and “The Accountant”

In the last few years this issue has been very much in the spotlight in productive terms and, even though several titles only exist in the original version so far, there are however many remarkable works. Among them, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, based on the novel by the same title by Jonathan Safran Foer, and The Story of Luke which is both funny and dramatic. In 2016 the already mentioned documentary Life, Animated came out, as also The Accountant with Ben Affleck, that works pretty well as an action thriller, but definitely not very well for its representation of the Asperger syndrome.

List of movies about Autism and Asperger's Syndrome ordered by release date. You can also view the movies in alphabetical order or in rating order.